Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Do the sub domain backlinks count for main domain and increase authority?
-
Hi all,
I just wonder if the back links for different sub domains will be counted and considered to rank the main domain better or they are just limit to sub domain pages? There are many websites which has got multiple sub domains which receive backlinks? So the backlinks to main domain and sub domain weigh same at Google?
Thanks
-
Nigel's suggestions are right on.
We redirected subdomains into folders on the main site and the results were KICKASS. KICKASS. We started producing a lot more traffic and making a lot more money.
-
Hi Nigel,
Glad that you are happy to look at the website. I think you must have a look at website for better understanding. I have sent the details through PM. Please check.
Thanks a lot.
-
Hi vtmoz
There is not a problem if all the content is different and unique to the sub-domain.The problem only comes when you try and rank for content that you are already ranking for on the main website.
The best way is to pull all content on to the main website as it is far better for SEO.
I can understand your comment about other sites doing it but honestly, in my opinion, that is not a reason to follow them. You will get better ranking, more quickly if you combine the whole site together rather than try and promote subdomains. Which frankly just make for a lot more work.
Regards - happy to look at the site
-
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for such detailed response. I am afraid that we may hurt ourselves after reading your answer. But we can see many websites which have got number of links from their sub domains, infact from every page of their sub domains and I don't see them penalised.
And what is wrong when we try to divert users from old content to new content? We can see this been employed by many websites when they have something to feed to their customers.
If you are sure about the risk, I would like to get your personal suggestion by looking at our website if you can.
Thank you
-
Hi Vtmoz
In my experience subdomains are a bad way to go and it is invariably better to reincorporate the content on to your main website in a logical directory structure. There is evidence of some link juice being passed back to the main site if all the sub-domains are linked back to the site in a proper structure.
However, if you are merely trying to increase positions in Google by ranking for subdomains which compete for similar terms to your main site then you are doomed to fail.
You basically end up with a link network which can easily be spotted and penalised.
Regards
Nigel
-
I guess it probably depends on the website, I think they are counted as 'backlinks' but probably carry less authority. I guess one benefit is it helps the visibility of your pages to search engines.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why my Domain Authority (DA) is Decreased
Hello, I would like to know how the changes in domain authority is considered by MOZ? Domain Authority for my this domain https://factohr.com was 14 and it is decreased to 13 in this week. Though i have a very decent and good links going over to all my pages howcome my DA is affected and decreased. As its regularly being updated and has a high quality traffic! i would like to know the reason behind decrement in DA and is there any connection with redirection of .com domain? How can i increase DA for my website?
Algorithm Updates | Feb 10, 2020, 7:40 PM | MyMoz710 -
Fresh backlinks vs old backlinks: A solid ranking factor?
Hi Moz community, Backlinks being a major ranking factor, do they must be very recent or fresh to make a ranking difference compared to the backlinks which are years old? We know usually fresh content ranks well, but I wonder how much the fresh/recent backlinks impact in rankings. Do the years old backlinks from related and reputed website have same impact on rankings? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | Dec 5, 2017, 6:18 AM | vtmoz0 -
Sub-domain with spammy content and links: Any impact on main website rankings?
Hi all, One of our sub-domains is forums. Our users will be discussing about our product and many related things. But some of the users in forum are adding a lot of spammy content everyday. I just wonder whether this scenario is ruining our ranking efforts of main website? A sub domain with spammy content really kills the ranking of main website? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | Nov 8, 2017, 10:50 PM | vtmoz0 -
Ranking drop after sub domain to sub directory migration. Usual?
Hi all, We had our help articles on sub-domain help.website.com. Then we moved it to sub directory website.com/help/. We expected ranking improvement of website.com as there is a wide saying of benefiting from sub domain to sub directory migration. We have noticed that ranking improvement of new sub directory pages (website.com/help/) but not for any main website pages (website.com). I presume that link juice from main website has benefited new sub directory pages but main website lost ranking due to the page rank dilution. Do you agree? Any ideas? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | Oct 4, 2017, 9:42 AM | vtmoz0 -
US domain pages showing up in Google UK SERP
Hi, Our website which was predominantly for UK market was setup with a .com extension and only two years ago other domains were added - US (.us) , IE (.ie), EU (.eu) & AU (.com.au) Last year in July, we noticed that few .us domain urls were showing up in UK SERPs and we realized the sitemap for .us site was incorrectly referring to UK (.com) so we corrected that and the .us domain urls stopped appearing in the SERP. Not sure if this actually fixed the issue or was such coincidental. However in last couple of weeks more than 3 .us domain urls are showing for each brand search made on Google UK and sometimes it replaces the .com results all together. I have double checked the PA for US pages, they are far below the UK ones. Has anyone noticed similar behaviour &/or could anyone please help me troubleshoot this issue? Thanks in advance, R
Algorithm Updates | Jan 6, 2016, 8:10 PM | RaksG0 -
Confused About Addon Domains and SEO
I find addon domains really confusing. Everyone I've asked so far says that they don't affect SEO but I find that really hard to believe considering the same content is on both a subdomain and a subfolder and also has it's own unique domain. PLUS (in my case) completely different niche sites are sharing the same hosting. I really don't want to pay for hosting for all of my different sites but at the same time, if it's better/safer to do so for Panda/Penguin reasons I'm happy to do that. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your opinions/suggestions!
Algorithm Updates | Jun 27, 2012, 12:44 PM | annasusmiles0 -
Plural vs non-plural domain name
I'm sure this question has been answered and asked a 1,000 different ways but what would be the best domain name to use in the long term (2 years +)? The plural versions (examples.com) which has a decent domain authority and is ranking 1st in Google search results yet has less search volume or the singular version (example.com) that has no current SEO value for the search term that we'd like to target however the singular version of the keyword has a much higher search volume? so basically will it be better to have the exact match that has more volume or the plural form that has better rankings after 2 years of doing SEO for each domain? My guess is that using (examples.com) with the better domain authority and tightening the grip on its dominance in Google will still be more effective than having the exact match domain with more search volume for that keyword while performing the same amount of SEO even after two years. Any suggestions?
Algorithm Updates | Feb 13, 2012, 3:59 PM | ydop0 -
What's better .NET or a hyphenated.COM domain
What's better .NET or a hyphenated .COM domain I know this is simple but in selecting a domain for my current project and I only have two options. firstname-lastname.COM or
Algorithm Updates | Feb 9, 2012, 7:56 PM | RonSparks
firstnamelastname.NET I'm leaning to the .COM as after reading the how to choose a domain name post. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name Thanks1